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Khaya, let's be objective!

09 November 2011, 07:16

After
a brief break from the ‘black vs. white’ articles from readers, a
couple of resident columnists decided to get into the action. Khaya
Dlanga's Blacks, you are lazy & Whites are more equal than others and
David Moseley's White people, let’s march proved to be interesting
reads and of course attracted plenty of attention. Which columnist
wouldn’t receive hundreds of reads and comments after including the
adjectives “black” and “white” in their titles?

Before
I get into what I really want to talk about, I would firstly like to
apologise profusely for myself and on behalf of my parents who are
benefactors of Apartheid. They toiled for 30 years, 8 to 5 each day
saving up enough money to provide my sister and me with a tertiary
education that they never had. This wonderful gift called an education
taught me, amongst other things, the difference between a serious piece
of writing and satire.So I was very surprised to read Khaya’s and
readers’ comments about David’s article. In the US and other 1st
world countries, where freedom of speech is a right not a privilege,
comedians such as Chris Rock thrive on making fun of his own race and
other races. Anyway, I guess this is South Africa, the land of
sensitivity and double standards. Get called a “darkie” and you can
sue, open a café called “Darkie Café” in Joburg and you will make big
bucks!

Now onto a few things that really bugged me when reading “Whites are more equal than others”:

Which “people”?

Khaya
accuses me, in my personal capacity, “for causing the fatal blow” which
I’m assuming is the establishment of the Apartheid government in the
early 90’s. I don’t think I was alive back then but even if I was, I
don’t think that the white, general public of the day voted for the
Apartheid laws, merely the government and its promises (sound
familiar?). Just like I don’t believe the German public voted for WWII
and the extermination of the Jews when they voted in Hitler. Maybe I’m
wrong, but if I am then you are implying that black South Africans have
voted for a lack of service delivery, a failed education system and mass
fraud, corruption and theft by the government. Khaya then ignores the
fact that the white, general public voted to end Apartheid, in other
words they were the “perpetrators” of the end of Apartheid. What’s also
confusing is that he quotes Steve Biko, “We believe that in our country
there shall be no minority, there shall be no majority, just people”,
then goes on to polarise the post 94’ “people” into two groups, victims
and “perpetrators”.

“Seek first to understand, then to be understood”

“The
polarisation mostly has to do with a lack of willingness for some
people to understand the grievances each side faces. Apart from the
aircon fights between blacks and whites in South Africa, right now,
there is no greater division between the races than the discussion of
economic liberation.”Khaya, let me enlighten you on the grievances and discussions that white people are having right now:

Corruption, fraud, theft of taxpayers money

Crime levels including boer genocide (see www.genocidewatch.com)

Lack of service delivery which affects mostly black, poor South Africans

Julius Malema and his incitement of hatred towards whites

Now
tell me that you or the government give a flying duck about any of
these grievances. The government has proven over time that they do not
care and you have proven with your columns that these issues are not on
the top of your agenda. It’s obvious that you direct your first
sentence above at whites yet you are unwilling to understand the
grievances of whites. Yes, blacks have much to be aggrieved about but
it’s not the ANC way to accept that it is also to blame, rather channel
all the blame and hatred towards whites through Juju and others that
think like him.

“The great fallacy”

Ok
I will admit that a large majority of whites, at the time of Apartheid,
did benefit. Many are still benefitting today, but you have it wrong.
The biggest fallacy is the fallacy that stinking rich, greedy, corrupt
fat cats in government struggled for their people. Yes there were some
that did, Nelson Mandela, Biko etc but most of the heroes who are in
government today struggled for the loot. If I hated blacks and I was
in government this is what I would do:

I
would steal billions of rands in taxpayers money directed at housing,
service delivery and schooling. I’d pump the money into large luxury
aircrafts and luxury estates for me and my band of thieves.

I would deny the black majority a decent education. I’d do this by putting in place an education system that is doomed to fail.

I
would give my friends and family the tenders whilst receiving kickbacks
and I’d put them in charge of large mining companies, which paid out
massive bonuses instead of paying its employees.

To
totally cripple service delivery I’d put incompetent cadres into power
at municipal level in order to mismanagement budgets, wastefully expend
and fail to deliver.

The
reality is that the previously advantaged are shrinking rapidly in
numbers, the poor majority is multiplying and the fat cats are riding
the gravy train and getting fatter. You are running out of excuses!

“Exceptions, not the norm”

These
black billionaires and millionaires you speak of may be “exceptions”
BUT the norm of these exceptions is that their surnames coincidently
have Zuma, Mandela etc behind their names and are in most cases
affiliated with the ANC. The other norm is that the government needs to
award tenders to black businesses. Unfortunately they opt to award
tenders to their already rich cadres instead of the small or medium
black businesses without political connections. Is this government
carrying out it’s “responsibility to create a more entrepreneurial
friendly society across all social levels”?

“Economic impact of inequality in societies”

It’s
funny how you compare the most equal societies (Japan, Finland and
Norway) to the most unequal societies (US, Portugal and UK) in terms of
life expectancy, literacy, imprisonment and teen pregnancy. Considering
that your piece is about South Africa, why have you not compared our
unequal society, with has had 17 years to improve, to the unequal
societies of the US, Portugal and the UK in terms of those things?
Probably because of the fact that life expectancy was higher for the
majority during Apartheid, crime was lower, imprisonment was lower. But
you chose to ignore those facts.

“White unemployment”

“White
unemployment in South Africa only sits at 7% while black unemployment
is well over 30%”. I quite enjoyed your clever misuse of numbers there.
Whilst white unemployment may be 7% of the entire population, whites
only make up about 10% of the population. If not a single white person
is employed, will you come out stating that white unemployment sits at
10%? Very clever I must say! Many of us know the impact of AA and many
of us have been to the white squatter camps around the country. Trying
to create another fallacy that there aren’t hundreds of thousands of
poor, white South Africans is not cool, it is lying.

Finally,
anyone with an educated, objective mind would mention the term “wealth
creation” when talking about economic freedom. I’ve tried to find this
term, the closest I got was “spreading the wealth”. The difference
between the two is as big as black and white. If you read the comments
and listen to the news, it seems that whites want wealth creation which
means raising the average. What is wrong with this concept?

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